[continuing chapter 4]
Chin stood, eyes wide and mouth slack, and the weight of his sword pulled his arm down, threatening to drag Wen's sword down with it. As suddenly as time had slowed and broadened, it snapped back into its normal speed and shape. Wen pulled his sword free of Chin's, flipped it around, grabbing it as it finished its turn, and in a single smooth motion smashed the pommel into the space between Chin's eyebrows. The huge man grunted, once, the sound of air being forced from him, and then collapsed to the deck as if he'd been a sack of rice.
Only when he was sure that Chin was not going to get up again did Wen turn to see what had so distracted Chin. He was just in time to see a beautiful, shapely—and very naked—young woman fall to the deck. "I suppose that was help of a sort," he said to himself.
To the rebel who was advancing on the demon's unconscious form he raised his sword, saying, "Fool, a moment ago you saw an old man here. Do you honestly believe that this creature really is a beautiful young woman?"
"Maybe," the rebel said. "I know I'd like to find out for myself."
"Gods," Wen said, placing the point of his sword against the man's breast. "Stand back, you idiot, and if you're lucky all I'll do is tell the creature your name when—when this is over."
"Pig!" Wen slammed backward into the mast. "Unclean person!" His sword flew from his hand as Liang Sheng's thin, petulant voice rose in volume; the sword bounced off the deck and rose again to hover, point toward him, a couple of arm's lengths from his face. "You stinking piece of offal!" Sheng screamed. As the sword sped toward him Wen hunched his shoulders and ducked to one side. The sword buried its tip into the mast. There was no sign of the old adept, which was frightening: how could you fight an enemy you couldn't see?
Then Liang Sheng rose into the air from beyond the fuchuan's rail, green and orange lightning flickering from his finger-tips. Evidently he'd been hiding in the Jade Maiden's cabin during the attach on the merchant ship. He seemed to do that a lot. "How dare you show such disrespect to your anointed leader!" A gesture with the tips of two fingers sent a blast of wind straight at Wen, who tumbled to the deck when the cold, foul-smelling air hit him. "It was your duty to accept your punishment!"
"I was never very good at doing my duty," Wen gasped as he scrambled behind a large bundle of matting. He looked to the demon, who remained limp, naked and unconscious on the deck. "Wake up!" he shouted. "Help me, damn you!" The demon didn't respond.
A sound like the rattle of a box full of children's toys brought Wen's head back around to Liang Sheng. The adept had raised up a collection of wooden pins and shafts and was, with small movements of his fingers, aligning them so that they all pointed at Wen. There were so many of them that it seemed unlikely there was anyplace on the ship Wen could hide from them. Can I make it to the side and go over before those things pummel me to death?
A howl from beyond the mast, ending in a scream, caused both Wen and Sheng to look back to the demon. The idiotically lustful pirate lay, blood-smeared, on the deck, his pants around his ankles. A group of the dragon's shrimp soldiers encircled the naked demon-woman, who was struggling up into a sitting position. More soldiers, Wen was gratified to see, were scuttling toward him, pikes raised to ward off Liang's impromptu missiles.
"Demons!" Liang Sheng was practically screaming now, and Wen heard hysteria in his outrage. "Despoilers of virtue, die!" He flung his wooden arsenal toward Wen, then with a single violent gesture caused the projectiles to suddenly shift course and drive at the demon.
With a crack that suggested a gigantic tree splitting down the middle, the wooden missiles disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of sawdust that hovered for a second, then burst in a flash of light that left images glittering behind Wen's remaining eye. When he could see properly again the demon-woman had risen up into the air and was facing Liang Sheng; her long, black hair floated around her like storm-clouds promising very, very bad weather in Liang's immediate future. "You think you know the Dao?" she asked, in a voice like the waves of a storm-sea. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, man."
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